Here's the latest --
I have been named POET LAUREATE of SONOMA COUNTY. At the inaugural reception I announced the Being Brave Poetry Project. For a description of the project go to my Bio & Creative Life page.
In the Cities of Sleep poems related to the climate crisis has been released by Fernwood Press https://www.fernwoodpress.com/category/catalog/. In the Cities of Sleep is my contribution to EXTRACTION: Art on the Edge of the Abyss. www.extractionart.org
WEAVERS OF THE BASKET - met for a full round of the seasons, from Equinox to Solstice to Equinox to Solstice, celebrating in community our connection Earth and refreshing our focus for the coming quarter-year.
I celebrate the Summer Solstice from June 20th to June 22nd as a time when I turn and look back over what has come to light in the round of seasons. I remind myself that time will not be endless for me, that each of us has a limited number of days on Earth. As the light slips away minute by minute over the coming days, I want to use my time well.
It's an ancient idea that our role as humans is to sing the songs and dance the dances (as Malcom Margolin put it) that encourage the plants to grow and the rain to fall and that turn the sun toward her night journey and call her back again on the darkest days of winter. It is the human labor of participation that helps sustain the world; by remembering that, we ensure life continues.
With these thoughts I turn to face the future -- what lies ahead in the coming months and how can I participate in what will be harvested? The Autumn Equinox will be here sooner than I know it, bringing another pause to feel the sigh of summer's end. But for now -- it's time to stay up with the light and celebrate the longest days of the year.
INSISTENT GRACE - I'm delighted that Fernwood Press published this collection (go to www.elizabeth-herron.com/events for recorded video-zoom readings) and I look forward to more readings and conversation about that book as well as the poems from my current manuscript (possible titles are In the Cities of Sleep or A Backward Map -- which catches your attention?) -- poems that speak of the impacts of climate chaos.
THE IMPACT EXPERIENCE
"The emergence of a new form is part of what I see as the mystery. And to live with mystery requires faith in process. We are continually participating in what emerges, so we are the co-creators of the future as well as the present moment. . . ."
REPORT - a poetry chapbook published by dPress and based on natural cycles (weather, tides, the moon, the movements of the planets and the minor role of an individual human life) was exhibited as part of the Your Landscape show at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts.
THE POET'S HOUSE bound/boxed by artist Jimalee Plank, Honorable Mention award winner, Art of the Book exhibit at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, summer 2016.
COVERED IN BIRDS In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Laguna Foundation - a reading and concert with TAKE JACK, voices a'capela, and 8 poets herded by the 9th poet -- me! For that event, I wrote a composite poem (titled "Covered in Birds") made from fragments of a poem written by each poet on the subject of birds. TAKE JACK then took my poem and created a gorgeous and complicated vocal arrangement as the final piece of the evening. It seemed to me the whole room and everyone in it lifted off on the wings of their song in a profound sense of spiritual communion. A night to remember forever.
SPEECHLESS UNDERSTANDING - a collaborative performance including saxaphone, movement art, vocalist, and videography, along with my memorized text of the "The Village of Speechless Understanding."
LITERATURE ALIVE! The Literature Alive! reading at the old stone brewery on a cold night in Nevada City was one of a number of readings based on material developed for and from my five-week trip funded by the Foundation for Deep Ecology. Returning from that tour, as Minstrel of the Interior, I did a series of readings to bring back what I had learned.
STEELHEAD VALENTINE & SALMON CHANT
I composed both the "Salmon Chant" and the "Steelhead Valentine" to celebrate the Pacific salmon annual returns. The chant has been performed three times in collaboration with a dancer and a drummer, once at the Santa Rosa Junior College, once at Sonoma State University, and once again at the annual meeting of the International Society for Ecological Restoration where I also performed "Water," with seven dancers.